This is more of an information gathering post, but I will also share my experience. In my experience: Yes, they are. I've seen this now in 3 big companies I worked for as a consultant. The best developers are chronically overloaded with work. Their schedules are packed with mandatory meetings that they have to attend because they often also have a leadership role. But in some of those meetings their presence is not really required from a standpoint of the content discussed in that particular meeting. They just have to be there because the head of development on a project has to be there.
Someone sometime decided that and the decision was never re-evaluated, and isn't evaluated on a meeting by meeting basis. I guess it is just easier to invite everyone who might have something to say than to carefully consider which presence is really required for the topic at hand. My philosophy on meetings is: Only invite the people which are absolutely necessary to achieve the purpose of the meeting. But in my experience, especially for regular meetings large companies don't seem to share this philosophy.
But that creates an almost tragic waste in my opinion. See, the best developers, those are the guys you want to have a lot of undistracted time to reflect and think deeply. Those are the guys from whom you get the most value from giving them this time. And yet in my experience, those are the guys who are given the least time to think deeply and reflect.
What about you? What is your experience? I would especially like to hear from people working at small companies, because I have no experience working at small companies.
See you in the comments!
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